# Rutherford (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/rutherford/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A Scottish habitational surname from Old English from a place where there was once a settlement in the Scottish borders.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 28,079 |
| US rank (2010) | 1,250 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 10,996 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.0% (27,539 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈrʌðərfərd/, 3 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Old English hryþer (“cattle”) + ford (“ford”). The first element is from Proto-Germanic *hrunþaz.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Rutherford in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 82% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 12% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.2% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.2% |
| Two or more races | 2.3% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Rutherford in the United States, the United Kingdom and The Bahamas.

## People named Rutherford

- Margaret Rutherford, British actress (1892–1972)
- Kelly Rutherford, American actress
- Joseph Franklin Rutherford, American lawyer, Watch Tower Society president (1869–1942)
- Zara Rutherford, Belgian-British pilot
- Jesse Rutherford, American singer, songwriter and actor
- Frank Rutherford, Bahamian triple jumper (born 1964)
- Johnny Rutherford, American racecar driver
- John Rutherford, American politician
- Dan Rutherford, American politician
- Countee Cullen, American author (1903–1946)
- John Rutherfurd, (1760-1840) United States Senator from New Jersey

## Similar surnames

Retherford, Rutherfurd.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.